JF: I think that the way in which it’s feminist for me and probably for Shaun, too, is in the sense that we come from like this punk feminist culture, DIY culture that’s very irreverent towards expertise. And we were like, "We can do it. No, we don’t know how to run a business but we can figure it out."

Our feminism is also about paying living wages to our employees and making a sustainable small business where we can employ people and allow them to be their selves and express themselves on the job and pursue their other creative projects and have flexible schedules.

SC: In terms of it actually being a feminist salon as far as beauty goes, one of the things I’ll often say to women if they’re like, "I have a really high forehead so I feel like I can’t do xyz," I’m like, "Okay, well, I don’t see that as a stylist but if that’s how you feel there’s ways to address that. But that’s not a concern of mine that’s jumping out at me."

JF: Also what’s wrong with having a big forehead or a fat face or a long skinny face?

SC: Yeah, we should exaggerate it. If you want to look really fabulous in New York, maybe we should do the thing of taking your flaw and exaggerating it. Let’s take your round face and make a bob at your cheekbones.

All of our stylists first and foremost are very, very, very specific about not imposing any specific style onto any one person. We really listen. Like, what do you want to present? Who are you? Do you want to be blond? People don’t take women with blond hair as seriously as women with brown hair. Do you want to be taken seriously? Do you want to be able to sneak your ideas through the office because you’re blond? Because we could do that. Pulling out of women who they want to be in the world and then trying to bring that to fruition. That, to me, is the most feminist thing that I do in the salon everyday.

This year The Kitchen is honoring pioneer video artists Dara Birnbaum and Charles Atlas.

Dara Birnbaum is best known for her iconic video Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, which she made using pirated footage of the wildly popular 1970’s television show of the same name starring Linda Carter.

Aside from showing Wonder Woman at art venues and clubs all over, we at Seagull Salon are obsessed with the 1980 pop-up installation of Wonder Woman at the storefront windows of an old SoHohair salon called H-Hair Salon de Coiffure, Inc. Birnbaum’s Wonder Woman replaced the only VHS tape the salon owned at the time, an Italian version of Woodstock that had been on loop until Birnbaum approached the statuesque Linda Carter look-alike salon owner and asked if she could play Wonder Woman instead---to which the salon owner happily obliged.

Dara Birnbaum: Please, can you show my tape in your window, especially on the weekends?

H-Hair: What is your tape about?

DB: Wonder Woman

HH: Oh, I love Wonder Woman. I’ve been told I look like her.

DB: (She did)

Charles Atlas has been a favorite of mine for a long time, but I was re-introduced to a lot of his work by Johanna, who worked on his eponymously titled retrospective artist book. My favorite work of Atlas' is the 1984 film Hail The New Puritan, a collaboration with choreographer Michael Clark and Leigh Bowery with music by The Fall.

The Kitchen Gala after-party is super fun! I've gone for the last nine years and am happy to be included on a list of luminaries. Good DJ's, open bars, cute snacks and gorgeous people. It's always a great time. PLUS they always have the awesome photo booth by Bosco, which is where I'll be all night snapping up the universe's best selfies.

January 13, 2016

Seagull usually doesn't get involved with electoral politics, and has not officially endorsed a candidate since 1992 when Myles threw her hat in the ring and, before that, 1972 when we stood proudly behind the unbought and unbossed Shirley Chisholm.

But, today, I read in the New York Times Magazine that Eileen Myles would consent be the POTUS if called upon by the American People. My heart filled with hope. Myles states, "I mean, if the voters rose up with a write-in campaign, then of course I would serve."

While men should go on vacation, Myles has not had time to. This has been a busy year or so, full of literary and political accomplishments including the celebrated reissue of her canonical iconic Chelsea Girls, the publication of her poetry collection I Must Be Living Twice, and her totally postmodern cameo on Transparent in which she played witness to her fictionalized character performing her real poem. Speaking of Transparent, I am officially forecasting "Goth Moppa" as a 2016 fashion trend as well as the "Ali blouse," (any weird blouse) as a wardrobe staple. Oh, and I also recently learned that Myles is a 2016 Creative Capital awardee. Not to brag, but I got one of those grants—to write about art—last year. Plus I made it on Holland Cotter's top ten, NBD. Anyway, thank the goddess we can look forward to a collection of travel essays from Myles. Our bestie Laura Parnes got a Creative Capital grant,too, to continue production on her very exciting new "multi platform" film Tour Without End which promises to prominently feature Seagull staff and other VIPs, notably K8 Hardy. Which brings me to some crucial news about our muse: K8's Outfitumentary is eligible for the Bright Future award at... ROTTERDAM! And on that high note, I'll sign off. HAPPY NEW YEAR! xoxo Johanna

January 08, 2016

Welcome to 2016! The whole Seagull staff is ecstatically grateful to start the new year fresh in a new salon---a much, much bigger space to accommodate more clients/stylists than we ever imagined. We also needed space to hang more art! If you recall, Dead Seagull (our old location's unofficial name) could only hold one painting at a time, which was pretty limiting since there was so much more we wanted to hang.

We knew when we opened the new Seagull that we needed a very bold piece to greet our clients right when they walked in the door. What better choice than one of Kathe Burkhart's (in)famous Liz Taylor paintings:

Shaun took this photo of me at the front desk on our first day open for business, and as you can see, I'm ecstatic and honored to work along side a Burkhart piece:

Burkhart's work is intimidating and alluring. While this piece reads "Fuck You" if you read between the lines, it's saying "Get on my level."

Another score is this print by Alice O'Malley photograph that hangs out near our lovely new product shelf:

It's very Seagull meets Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. I love it so much.

We also got this A.L. Steiner print that is the perfect summation of the Seagull aesthetic: very queer and New York with a knowing wink to the West Coast.

Seagull thrives off the art and the energy of downtown NYC, so these newest additions to our collection make us incredibly happy. Definitely looking forward to future acquisitions from our favorite NYC artists.

We hope you have had a chance to come see new Seagull, and, if not, please come see us soon!

November 05, 2015

I mean first off. FAG OUT. We get to say that Naomi Wolf, journalist, political advisor and author of The Beauty Myth (basically the feminist beauty bible) gets her hair done at Seagull. Our salon! Right here in this town. Wolf is largely credited as the spokeswoman for the third wave feminism on which Seagull Salon's foundations were built.

"Then I found a feminist hair salon. Seagull, in Manhattan, was recommended to me by a Millennial friend with one of those cool haircuts that suggest that you know how to code (she does). She explained that Seagull is co-owned by a Riot Grrrl … one of the iconic 1990s early Third Wave groups of pissed-off young women who embraced a revamped, livelier version of feminism just when the culture had said the movement was over and done."

"The next time I went to Sarah, I asked to go lighter still. Change can be a little addictive, and before I knew it, I had become kind of … blonde. And I began to notice how the rigid code of what blonde and other hair colors used to signify had loosened. It was no longer overdetermined."

Seagull's Sarah Fenoglio is Naomi's stylist and gets RAVE reviews in the article and together, her and Naomi dispel the myths of blonde hair and rebuild a new culture of radical beauty choices that are no longer necessarily based on the basic principle that "Blondes Have More Fun" even though, in some cases maybe they do It's for sure worth reading the article.

April 22, 2015

Despite being on view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty is definitely Seagull Salon blog material: Minter is art royalty and an inspiration to the salon. And I was lucky enough to be down in Houston to revel in Minter's three decade exploration in painting, photography, and video.

Minter's early painting studies and student photographs of her Southern recluse mother lounging and primping open Pretty/Dirty...

Minter's work is messy yet slick. She's making jokes but asking questions, too.

Why might these images be seen as disturbing to some? The details one might find to be jarring in her work are actually not if you think about it, as the "grotesque" aspects are usually nothing more than a pimple or messy nail polish application or overgrown pubic hair. The imperfections allowed to exist in these glossy photographs are actually interferences with the mainstream idealized concepts of beauty seen in glossy magazines. What is typically edited out of a photo then becomes vital to Minter's work.

And it's when Minter fully commits to her pretty/dirty aesthetic that the work really comes to life. The colors become more vibrant and glossy, too, which is no surprise: she is letting her creativity run wild with her subject matter. Saying the CAHM show is beautiful would be an understatement. The works hang huge on the wall and are fun to look at because Minter is having fun with her work.

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty is a fantastic glimpse of a visionary at work. Go see it at the CAMH or Colorado or California---or Brooklyn when it comes to NYC next year!

November 04, 2014

Over here at Seagull Salon we all marvel the masterful Arabelle Sicardi at her supreme ability to totally do her own hair. Bleaching and coloring yer hair at home without looking like a shredded cotton ball is no easy feat. But a quick Google image search will show you that she can go from muted forest green to lemon or pastel coral without so much as one hair snapping.

February 26, 2014

Vera Chytilova's Czech New Wave "Daisies" is the kind of film you watch if you're in the mood for a political/feminist satire of an acid trip. Luckily I'm normally in that mood, so I was extremely happy to stumble on this film. (It's also interesting to watch because "Daisies" was quickly banned by the Communist government; Chytilova herself was banned from filmmaking for some years after.)

Filmed in 1966, "Daisies" opens with a montage of war footage. It then tells the story of two girls (both named Marie) who one day reflect on all the terrible things that happen in the world and so decide to be bad themselves.

The Maries then go on a surreal whirlwind of a journey---keyword: surreal---that involves a lot of excess. They wander in and out of scenes, creating havoc in one way or another. Sometimes to pass the time, they use men for meals and money. (They use and tease men a lot, pointing out all the foolish things men say to women to make them love them.)

Now embodying the sin of gluttony, they drink and eat a lot when they feel like it.

And when the Maries aren't running around being bad, they spend time in their apartment, surrounded by their art, cutting photos of flowers out of magazines, discussing life and talking nonsense.

One thing I can say for sure about "Daisies": the Maries have a great style, one I'd describe as mod anarchy.

And as for the story, there's not a lot to it. "Daisies" doesn't run very long. It's mainly just a trip to watch. The scenes don't follow any sort of linear path. They jump from there to here and back again. The point of the movie is pretty ambiguous, which is what I really love about it. "Daisies" just wants to present you with a crazy and bright mixture of scenes and ideas---and leave you to pick up the pieces.

October 03, 2013

We are super pleased to welcome hair stylist Sarah Fenoglio to the Seagull team!

Sarah arrived in spirit long before she came here four years ago. As a kid Sarah came here and left a part of her heart NYC, knowing that she would be back. Surrounded by changing neighborhoods and sub-cultures in flux, Sarah now lives on the virtual catwalk that is Bedford Avenue in the beating heart of Williamsburg. Being one of NYC's most fashionable streets, you never know what you're in for, and Sarah loves never knowing what is going to walk by and get her gears moving.

Sarah got a revelationary burst of inspiration from on a trip to Norway. She was struck by the vibrant colors the houses were painting and the way they uplifted the spirit against the backdrop of a dark winter sky. Not entirely unlike the style mavens set against the cement and steel backdrop of NYC, this inspires and informs Sarah's creative outlook every day.

Sarah has been doing hair for ten plus years and has a keen eye for fashion and detail. Most recently from Mudhoney Salon, Sarah brings a loyal following of downtown style seekers over to the West Village. She first heard of Seagull Salon five years ago and was thrilled to see that Johanna was one of the owners. As a self described feminist and fan of the electro-pop band Le Tigre, she knew right from the start Seagull would be a great place to be

Sarah's haircuts and hair colors are tailored especially for those looking for something versatile, and ultimately, she helps people feel like their best selves. She specializes in both cutting and coloring with an emphasis on blondes and color correction. Edgy creative colors ranging from subtle pastel tones to bold editorial statement pieces are a signature of Sarah's---and one we are glad to get behind!

Edgy short haircuts for women are a favorite. Razor-sharp lines juxtaposed with lots of texture and cool shapes are one of the highlights of Sarah's work. Both women and men get great styles from Sarah, both unconventional and elegant.

We've seen her pump out some awesome and really cool stuff in the last couple of weeks. She has tons of pictures of hairstyles on her own website, and we're gonna post a few of our favorites here.